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Patterson remains: It could take months for positive ID

James O’Rourke
11:02 p.m. EDT April 22, 2014

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State police said an apparent set of human remains was discovered Saturday morning about 500 feet east of Maple Avenue in the town of Patterson. (Alex Taylor/The Journal News)(Photo: (Alex Taylor/The Journal News))Buy Photo

PATTERSON – Although human remains found in the woods off Maple Avenue have been tentatively identified as those of a missing local man, state police said it could be months before they get a positive ID.

Police tentatively identified the remains as Gabriel Lopez-Duarte, a native of Guatemala who disappeared in late September 2010 at the age of 39. A bicycle Lopez-Duarte was riding when he went missing was found near the remains as was his identification, police said.

Brewster investigators said Tuesday they would not be able to say for certain the remains are Lopez-Duarte until they get the results of DNA tests, which could take months. Police said it's also possible they may never get a cause of death because the remains were skeletal and may not yield enough clues about how he died.

The remains were found about 9:15 a.m. Saturday about 500 feet east of Maple Avenue by some people clearing the woods, police said.

The area is less than a mile from the Locust Street home Lopez-Duarte shared with his brother's family. His brother, Isaias Lopez, who first reported the disappearance, said Monday that Lopez-Duarte had immigrated to the United States from Guatemala around 2009, but he had also lived in the United States for periods of time in the 1990s.

Hugo Lopez, the missing man's 16-year-old nephew, said his uncle has a wife and mother in Guatemala.

State police investigators believed almost immediately that the remains were human and began to comb through the case files of local missing persons. According to missingin.org, a website that tracks unsolved disappearances, Lopez-Duarte went missing on Sept. 29, 2010, after riding off on a 10-speed bicycle without telling anyone where he was going. The man, believed to have been wearing a blue shirt, tan pants and dress shoes when he disappeared, is listed at about 170 pounds and 5 feet, 6 inches tall.

Anyone with any information on the case is urged to contact the New York State Police Brewster Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 845-279-8656.